Q&A with David M. Brear, CEO and Co-Founder of 11:FS

David Brear, CEO and Co-founder at 11:FS, has pitched, established, and run billion-pound transformations for some of the biggest FS companies in the world. Most recently, he has also led the creation and market establishment of the challenger business bank Mettle for NatWest in the UK as its CEO, proving that the big banks can fight back against the FinTech threat.

Our mantra, our recruitment policy, and our vision for the future at 11:FS are that digital banking is only 1% finished. We say that not because we believe that people have done a bad job, but that people have not yet achieved the things that they set out to do. But more than that, there's 99% of the journey still to come.



MEDIA 7: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and what made you choose this career path?
DAVID BREAR:
I don't really think I chose this career path. Honestly, I very much sort of chose another path to start with. I was way more interested in playing sports than being a businessman, which is actually funny because now I think sports play such a large part in how I go about doing business. It's almost like a training ground for all other kinds of competitive edges and the mentality that I have today. Sadly, after tearing three ligaments in my left knee I knew I had to get a proper job so I moved from sports, sport science, and human biology into a more grown-up thing. I moved into computing, business, and maths, which was a bit of a shock to the system in terms of the industry. The reason I went for what I'm doing now was my dad gave me a stack of papers and basically said pick an industry where the headlines will still be bad in 20 years. He said if it's not a problem that's going to take 20 years plus to fix then it's probably not an industry that really needs your help. With that, I looked at this digital thing and it looked like it was probably going to be something. The banks and financial services more broadly were in a tough spot so I ended up being greedy and going for both digital and financial services. I guess the rest is history.


M7: Congratulations on 11:FS being the recipient of ‘The Pioneer Award 2021’ and ‘The Consultancy of the Year 2021’. Could you please give us a glimpse of the wonderful journey to these achievements?
DB:
It's funny, we were super proud of the awards. The Consultancy of the Year Award we've won three years in a row now, but we don't really consider them as achievements in themselves, more a sort of directional achievement if that makes sense. These things are essentially assurance that we’re on the road to what we want to achieve, something a lot bigger. Being five and a bit years old and a bootstrap business, it's great to have mainstream reach. Whether it's the British Bank awards or whether it's being recognized by the Financial Times as one of the top management consultancies in financial services, those things really reinforce not that we're at the destination, but we're on the right track.


But if you can sustainably create an outcome and truly master the behaviors and the effort that's required to generate that outcome, then you'll be an expert in something in the industry.



M7: Could you please share your perspective towards the perpetually changing dynamics of ‘Digital Financial Services?
DB:
Our mantra, our recruitment policy, and our vision for the future at 11:FS are that digital banking is only 1% finished. We say that not because we believe that people have done a bad job, but that people have not yet achieved the things that they set out to do. But more than that, there's 99% of the journey still to come. We're in an ever-changing industry. There is more regulatory change now than ever with the facilitation of different types of financial services that never existed before. We're seeing technology advance and be commoditized in a way that we've never really seen before with the advancements around artificial intelligence and cloud capability, or even the revolution that we're seeing within the core banking sphere is really changing what financial services actually means. So for us, in that ever-changing landscape, there's not a day you don't wake up to somebody announcing they're doing something amazing. If you look at the success of 11:FS it's based on the success of the community and the industry as a whole. That's why we're super proud of working in this industry and we're super proud of what everybody is achieving. Our vision is very much about changing the fabric of financial services, and that's not something that 11:FS can do on its own.


M7: In 4 years, 11:FS has gone from zero brands and zero revenues to a multimillion a month business. What do you think brought this massive growth?
DB:
It's easy to say hard work and determination, but it's really just hard work and determination. There's a great amount of timing that plays to that in terms of being in the right place at the right time, but if I'm honest with you I think the nicest thing about the last five and a bit years is that there really isn’t a week that's gone by that we haven't done something super cool. You never really lose and you never really win. It's very much a journey towards the successes that you're looking to do. I think sheer determination and sticking to it in terms of what we're trying to achieve, and given the type of business that we are, we don't have a bunch of people sitting on our board telling us what we should and shouldn't do.

We have the ability to seize the opportunities and recognize those opportunities when they present themselves, and that’s why I think we've been able to achieve the things that we have done. It's having smart people, giving them the remit to really make things happen, move fast, and fall forwards. From my perspective, that's why we started the business in the first place. The more I've reflected on it, the more I realized that I started the business because there was nowhere else I really wanted to work. So being in a situation where we create a company where our core mission is about unleashing talent and focusing everything on getting all of the noise out of the way to allow people to do the best work, everything else just sort of falls into place. How you create success is predominantly by focusing on those behaviors. What is the thing that you have to do every day to drive success?


We're seeing technology advance and be commoditized in a way that we've never really seen before with the advancements around artificial intelligence and cloud capability, or even the revolution that we're seeing within the core banking sphere is really changing what financial services actually means.



M7: What are the major advertising and marketing tools you use to hike up the brand awareness of your company?
DB:
I'd say 11:FS’s brand is roughly 1000 times bigger than 11:FS right now, but that's essentially an opportunity that we're creating for ourselves to grow into those clothes. From the beginning of the business when there was just Jason, Simon, Ross, and myself, we didn't have the budget that other organizations did, which meant we had to think a bit more creatively about how we spent money and how we create a brand. So for us, that was podcasts, it was social media, it was using b2c channels to create a b2b branding in a way that other people just haven't done. Creating a podcast or creating a blog post or putting out some research is easy in itself, but doing it week in week out is where you create a really consistent brand.

You are essentially known for what you do and what we do is add a crazy amount of value to the community by putting out content that shapes the way people think about things. We often get people telling us they get more value from reading the stuff that the team at 11:FS gives away for free than the stuff that, insert consultancies name here, charges 10s of millions of pounds for. That to me is what gives us a real sense of pride. However, we can only do that because we've got insanely passionate people who love the subject matter and who you know take it upon themselves to create great content. People who truly love the industry are at the point where they have an intersection between something they love doing and something that's super impactful. That's got to be the dream.


M7: What is your advice to young people who are starting their careers in Financial Services?
DB:
You've got to be really strategic about your career. Your career is yours, so what are the moves? What do you want to learn? What problem are you trying to understand? Figure out a vantage point that makes your perspective unique rather than the same as everybody else's. That's where value can be created. So for me, within financial services, I decided to try and work from as many different angles as possible. I began my journey in an offshoring company, then a management consultancy, a bank insurance company, and I found that when you can look at the problem from many different vectors then actually your insights are going to be different from everybody else's. You create a unique brand for yourself. I think my advice would be to see whatever problem you're seeking from as many different angles as you can.

The other thing I would say to people is to learn patience. If you want to become professional they say it’s 10,000 hours. But you don't perfect something by doing it once. If you've done it twice, you're probably not an expert. If you've done it 10 times, the same story. But if you can sustainably create an outcome and truly master the behaviors and the effort that's required to generate that outcome, then you'll be an expert in something in the industry. I think a lot of people lose that perspective today, particularly in the on-demand society we live in. I think it was Bruce Lee that said, I don't fear the person who's done 10,000 different kicks, I fear that one person who's done one kick 10,000 times because they will truly have mastered what it means to do that thing, and truly understand how to replicate it. For me, it boils down to patience and hard work. You can't do one without the other.

ABOUT 11:FS

11:FS is a challenger to the incumbent consultancies. We create innovative strategies and build out new propositions and ventures in the UK, US, Europe, and Asia for some of the biggest brands on the planet. Alongside this, 11:FS builds in-house products from competitor benchmarking tools like 11:FS Pulse to core banking and modern architecture systems like 11:FS Foundry. In 4 years, 11:FS has gone from zero brands and zero revenues to a multimillion a month business with one of the hottest brands in fintech, all with zero external investment in the group.

More C-Suite on deck

‘Leveraging technology to drive innovation,’ focuses Igor Telyatnikov

Media 7 | November 3, 2023

Igor Telyatnikov is a visionary leader and a driving force in the world of blockchain and financial services technology. Under his visionary leadership, AlphaPoint's product suite has expanded to encompass brokerage platforms, liquidity solutions, and digital asset wallets, catering to the diverse needs of the rapidly evolving financial landscape. Read on to know his ideas about the trends of digitalization in financial institutions and enterprises.

Read More

'There is a revenue relationship between marketing and sales,' says Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group

Media 7 | October 21, 2021

Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group, takes us through her passion-fuelled worldview of marketing operations that are strategically aimed to drive revenue. In this interview, we had the opportunity to take a peek at her concept of "revenue marketing," strategic marketing operations, and her inspiration behind authoring several award-winning books. Read on to find out how to optimize sales and marketing collaboration tools, and how to leverage data to create powerful marketing campaigns.

Read More

‘Crypto will promote a huge change in the financial service ecosystem,’ believes Roberta Antunes

Media 7 | November 24, 2021

Roberta Antunes, Chief of Growth at Hashdex, takes us through her wonderful professional journey and shares how Hashdex provides investors with secure access to cryptocurrency assets. Read on to find out how blockchain technology will redefine the financial service ecosystem.

Read More

‘Leveraging technology to drive innovation,’ focuses Igor Telyatnikov

Media 7 | November 3, 2023

Igor Telyatnikov is a visionary leader and a driving force in the world of blockchain and financial services technology. Under his visionary leadership, AlphaPoint's product suite has expanded to encompass brokerage platforms, liquidity solutions, and digital asset wallets, catering to the diverse needs of the rapidly evolving financial landscape. Read on to know his ideas about the trends of digitalization in financial institutions and enterprises.

Read More

'There is a revenue relationship between marketing and sales,' says Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group

Media 7 | October 21, 2021

Debbie Qaqish, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at The Pedowitz Group, takes us through her passion-fuelled worldview of marketing operations that are strategically aimed to drive revenue. In this interview, we had the opportunity to take a peek at her concept of "revenue marketing," strategic marketing operations, and her inspiration behind authoring several award-winning books. Read on to find out how to optimize sales and marketing collaboration tools, and how to leverage data to create powerful marketing campaigns.

Read More

‘Crypto will promote a huge change in the financial service ecosystem,’ believes Roberta Antunes

Media 7 | November 24, 2021

Roberta Antunes, Chief of Growth at Hashdex, takes us through her wonderful professional journey and shares how Hashdex provides investors with secure access to cryptocurrency assets. Read on to find out how blockchain technology will redefine the financial service ecosystem.

Read More

Related News

Financial Management

Synechron Launches 'Synechron Nexus' AI Solutions Suite in Fulfilling the Promise of AI With Ready-to-use Solutions

Synechron | February 02, 2024

Synechron, Inc., a leading global digital transformation consulting firm focused on financial services and technology organizations, announces the launch of its Synechron Nexus suite of nine Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions that are ready to be deployed within weeks. This array of generative AI-led solutions was designed to span the nexus between human expertise and AI, while enabling users to automate manually intensive tasks, increase project speed, drive operational efficiencies, and reduce costs across various key business tasks. Each solution, divided among three value streams, allows Synechron clients to improve their operations, reduce friction in their processes and boost productivity. Business Growth: Practical, innovative applications that enhance business capabilities Synechron Amplifai is a GenAI-powered market research solution. Its automated research capability saves significant time in a wide range of use-cases, reducing the tedium of gathering, analyzing and reporting market news, trends and strategies. Synechron Clarifai is a tool for summarizing and analyzing call-center transcripts. Conversations are flagged for non-compliance and further human review/actions. Synechron Simplifai centralizes project portfolio data and metrics for streamlined executive decision-making, informing effortless, data-backed decisions for executive and steering committee groups. Operational Efficiency: Advanced solutions to streamline processes and elevate internal operations Synechron Nexus Chat is built on a conversational AI model, understands and engages in a comprehensive range of scenarios and supports plug-ins for real-time data and integration, while delivering human-like conversational responses and text, safely and securely. Synechron Replai is an AI-driven, RFP and proposals tool, streamlining proposal creation with high-quality, insightful responses, with the ability to search the internal knowledge repository for fast access and content re-use. Synechron Unifai is an AI-driven HR solution, designed to simplify interactions between company HR functions and employees, such as policy information and employee-specific payroll details. Synechron Identifai collects comprehensive online market intelligence and provides an in-depth understanding of business, emerging technology trends, or any research topic. Developer Productivity: Toolkit to optimize timelines, minimize costs, and automate practices across the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Synechron Codifai is an SDLC productivity improvement tool, using automation in code generation, unit test case generation, legacy code migration, code optimizations, and automatic code documentation. It works closely with Synechron Verifai which addresses software testing aspects. Synechron Verifai is a GenAI tool for SDLC productivity, using automation in code generation with a focus on QA test case generation, automated test script generation, synthetic test data generation, and bug detection and bug fixing. It works closely with Synechron Codifai which addresses software development efficiency. This new Synechron Nexus AI suite of real-world, practical business solutions, combined with the five formalized RiskTech.AI Accelerators (launched in October 2023), leverages Synechron's AI Practice expertise globally. The creation of AI-led business solutions has been a passion of Synechron's for over a decade, and the firm's commitment to innovative excellence has won the firm eight prestigious AI industry awards to date. Faisal Husain, Synechron's Co-founder and CEO, said of the launch of the Synechron Nexus AI Suite of solutions, "We are proud to be releasing this extensive array of AI-enhanced solutions that go beyond the hype, and provide significant, tangible benefits to business operations. AI and GenAI-rich tools are not just ideas we offer to our clients, but key process accelerators that we ourselves at Synechron are deploying across our company, as we offer ways to integrate the benefits of this technology with human expertise." Ryan Cox, Co-head of Synechron's AI Practice in the UK, added, "Our team has developed, tested, and successfully integrated these advanced AI solutions. Our approach is to strategically guide our clients to integrate AI effectively within their business processes. We identify the key areas where AI can bring the most impact, aligning our solutions to their unique business needs. This targeted approach ensures significant value creation with maximum benefit." Prabhakar Srinivasan, Co-head of Synechron's AI Practice in Bangalore, India, commented, "Artificial Intelligence has proven to be a wonderful force for driving business enhancements by quickly synthesizing extraordinarily large data sets. The Large Language Models used learn over short span of time on how to optimize each firm's proprietary information, thereby boosting productivity and allowing businesses to realize time and cost savings as they optimize tasks." About Synechron At Synechron, we believe in the power of digital to transform businesses for the better. Our global consulting firm combines creativity and innovative technology to deliver industry-leading digital solutions. Synechron's progressive technologies and optimization strategies span end-to-end Artificial Intelligence, Consulting, Digital, Cloud & DevOps, Data, and Software Engineering, servicing an array of noteworthy financial services and technology firms. Through research and development initiatives in our FinLabs we develop solutions for modernization, from Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to Data Science models, Digital Underwriting, mobile-first applications and more. Over the last 20+ years, our company has been honored with multiple employer awards, recognizing our commitment to our talented teams. With top clients to boast about, Synechron has a global workforce of 15,000+, and has 48 offices in 19 countries within key global markets.

Read More

Payments

Plooto Launches Enhanced All-In-One Payment Automation Solution for Scaling Businesses

Plooto | January 16, 2024

Plooto, a leading payment automation solution for small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), has launched a payment orchestration offering that is custom-designed to support the complex workflows and security requirements of rapidly scaling businesses. As the size and operational complexity of businesses increase, the risk of fraud and human error grows. This leads businesses to implement more rigorous security and control policies to keep the management of cash flow secure and reliable, placing additional burdens on finance teams including time, effort, and resources spent upgrading or building in-house solutions. Similar challenges extend to accounting and bookkeeping firms, as their robust compliance processes and corresponding reputation are critical drivers of growth. Firms' ability to retain and expand client accounts hinges not only on strong relationships but also on their adherence to rigorous compliance standards, especially when it comes to financial data protection. With this launch, Plooto brings to market the first solution in Canada to address these unique cash management challenges faced by midsize enterprises. This offering is priced at a competitive rate as organizations often cite cost as a barrier to adoption of cash management solutions. As volume and complexity of operations increase, businesses can trust Plooto to scale their needs seamlessly without straining their resources. Coupling end-to-end payment automation with stringent security controls and seamless connection to enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, Plooto is now capable of helping even more businesses scale efficiently within their ecosystem. Building upon Plooto’s core offering of simplified, all-in-one payables and receivables automation, new capabilities include Dual Controls: Limits human error and protects against fraud through comprehensive approvals on changes to sensitive financial information Single Sign-On: Enterprise-level safeguards that enable security personnel to manage both user access to sensitive data and removal from a centralized hub as teams scale Integration with Oracle Netsuite: Seamless two-way sync automates reconciliation protecting against costly human error, reducing billable hours, and helping finance teams save time "Our new offering enables finance teams to easily scale their workflows and gain the visibility they crucially need into their cash flow,” says Hamed Abbasi, Co-Founder and CEO of Plooto. “I’m thrilled that Plooto is expanding how we support growing SMBs, and that we are the first company to fill this critical gap for Canadian businesses.” Having recently been awarded with Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ and Technology Fast 50™ designations for a staggering 3-year 433% growth rate, Plooto continues to provide industry-leading support for SMBs with a platform that enhances cash management through its all-in-one payment automation. Plooto has also recently expanded its leadership team, bringing extensive experience from major financial services companies such as Varo Bank, Xero, and PayPal. About Plooto Plooto partners with growing small-to-midsize businesses to give them complete control over their cash management. The all-in-one payment automation platform securely automates all payable and receivable workflows, offers extensive payment capabilities, and seamless integration with accounting software to automatically reconcile invoices. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Toronto, Plooto serves over 10,000 North American businesses, and integrates with top accounting software platforms Quickbooks, Xero, and NetSuite. Simplifying complex processes at scale, Plooto is the financial engine businesses rely on to achieve their growth potential.

Read More

Core Banking

Webull partners with Dow Jones to drive greater financial literacy and empower retail investing decisions

Webull Corporation | January 30, 2024

Webull, a leading online broker for global investors, has launched an initiative to drive financial literacy, announcing its partnership with Dow Jones, a global news and business information services provider and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The agreement aims to drive greater levels of financial literacy among retail investors by empowering Webull customers with curated award-winning content from The Wall Street Journal, including news, analysis, and essential insights on managing personal finances. The collaboration provides access to the publication's trusted and reliable journalism to help Webull users make better educated and informed decisions around their financial goals. Webull users will receive a curated round-up of WSJ articles on its news feed within the app. New and renewing Webull customers will also receive a WSJ subscription. "Webull was founded on the principle of democratizing investing and making it more accessible and inclusive - especially for first time investors. In this regard, we've already seen success, with a robust number of our active members being first-time investors," said Anthony Denier, Webull Group President. "Through this partnership with Dow Jones, we want to put the power of the world's leading financial publication straight into the hands of our customers with content that helps investors make better financial decisions with greater confidence." "Financial literacy, powered by trusted and credible journalism, leads to better decisions," said David Martin, Chief Revenue Officer for Business Intelligence at Dow Jones. "We are delighted to work with Webull and look forward to putting the Journal's high-quality and award-winning business news, information and analysis at the fingertips of millions of Webull users on its platform to help elevate their decision making process." Financial literacy has been identified as a key barrier to entry to investing for many people, with research from the World Economic Forum revealing that 40% of non-investors chose not to invest because they do not know how or find it too confusing. In addition, approximately 70% said they would be more likely to invest, or invest more, with expanded financial education. With the trend of retail investors skewing younger, the initiative aims to address knowledge gaps by providing access to actionable and outcome-oriented information to help educate and shape the way new and existing users navigate fast-changing markets in an informed and responsible manner. About Webull Webull is a leading digital investment platform built on next generation global infrastructure. The Webull Group is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida and backed by private equity investors located in the United States, Europe and Asia. Webull serves tens of millions of users from over 180 countries, providing retail investors with 24/7 access to global financial markets. Users can put investment strategies to work by trading global stocks, ETFs, options and fractional shares, through Webull's trading platform, which is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Canada. Webull also offers investment education services, with lessons covering a wide range of topics. About Dow Jones Dow Jones is a global provider of news and business information, delivering content to consumers and organizations around the world across multiple formats, including print, digital, mobile and live events. Dow Jones has produced unrivaled quality content for more than 130 years and today has one of the world's largest news-gathering operations globally. It is home to leading publications and products including the flagship Wall Street Journal, America's largest newspaper by paid circulation; Barron's, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Financial News, Investor's Business Daily, Factiva, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones Newswires, OPIS and Chemical Market Analytics.

Read More

Financial Management

Synechron Launches 'Synechron Nexus' AI Solutions Suite in Fulfilling the Promise of AI With Ready-to-use Solutions

Synechron | February 02, 2024

Synechron, Inc., a leading global digital transformation consulting firm focused on financial services and technology organizations, announces the launch of its Synechron Nexus suite of nine Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions that are ready to be deployed within weeks. This array of generative AI-led solutions was designed to span the nexus between human expertise and AI, while enabling users to automate manually intensive tasks, increase project speed, drive operational efficiencies, and reduce costs across various key business tasks. Each solution, divided among three value streams, allows Synechron clients to improve their operations, reduce friction in their processes and boost productivity. Business Growth: Practical, innovative applications that enhance business capabilities Synechron Amplifai is a GenAI-powered market research solution. Its automated research capability saves significant time in a wide range of use-cases, reducing the tedium of gathering, analyzing and reporting market news, trends and strategies. Synechron Clarifai is a tool for summarizing and analyzing call-center transcripts. Conversations are flagged for non-compliance and further human review/actions. Synechron Simplifai centralizes project portfolio data and metrics for streamlined executive decision-making, informing effortless, data-backed decisions for executive and steering committee groups. Operational Efficiency: Advanced solutions to streamline processes and elevate internal operations Synechron Nexus Chat is built on a conversational AI model, understands and engages in a comprehensive range of scenarios and supports plug-ins for real-time data and integration, while delivering human-like conversational responses and text, safely and securely. Synechron Replai is an AI-driven, RFP and proposals tool, streamlining proposal creation with high-quality, insightful responses, with the ability to search the internal knowledge repository for fast access and content re-use. Synechron Unifai is an AI-driven HR solution, designed to simplify interactions between company HR functions and employees, such as policy information and employee-specific payroll details. Synechron Identifai collects comprehensive online market intelligence and provides an in-depth understanding of business, emerging technology trends, or any research topic. Developer Productivity: Toolkit to optimize timelines, minimize costs, and automate practices across the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Synechron Codifai is an SDLC productivity improvement tool, using automation in code generation, unit test case generation, legacy code migration, code optimizations, and automatic code documentation. It works closely with Synechron Verifai which addresses software testing aspects. Synechron Verifai is a GenAI tool for SDLC productivity, using automation in code generation with a focus on QA test case generation, automated test script generation, synthetic test data generation, and bug detection and bug fixing. It works closely with Synechron Codifai which addresses software development efficiency. This new Synechron Nexus AI suite of real-world, practical business solutions, combined with the five formalized RiskTech.AI Accelerators (launched in October 2023), leverages Synechron's AI Practice expertise globally. The creation of AI-led business solutions has been a passion of Synechron's for over a decade, and the firm's commitment to innovative excellence has won the firm eight prestigious AI industry awards to date. Faisal Husain, Synechron's Co-founder and CEO, said of the launch of the Synechron Nexus AI Suite of solutions, "We are proud to be releasing this extensive array of AI-enhanced solutions that go beyond the hype, and provide significant, tangible benefits to business operations. AI and GenAI-rich tools are not just ideas we offer to our clients, but key process accelerators that we ourselves at Synechron are deploying across our company, as we offer ways to integrate the benefits of this technology with human expertise." Ryan Cox, Co-head of Synechron's AI Practice in the UK, added, "Our team has developed, tested, and successfully integrated these advanced AI solutions. Our approach is to strategically guide our clients to integrate AI effectively within their business processes. We identify the key areas where AI can bring the most impact, aligning our solutions to their unique business needs. This targeted approach ensures significant value creation with maximum benefit." Prabhakar Srinivasan, Co-head of Synechron's AI Practice in Bangalore, India, commented, "Artificial Intelligence has proven to be a wonderful force for driving business enhancements by quickly synthesizing extraordinarily large data sets. The Large Language Models used learn over short span of time on how to optimize each firm's proprietary information, thereby boosting productivity and allowing businesses to realize time and cost savings as they optimize tasks." About Synechron At Synechron, we believe in the power of digital to transform businesses for the better. Our global consulting firm combines creativity and innovative technology to deliver industry-leading digital solutions. Synechron's progressive technologies and optimization strategies span end-to-end Artificial Intelligence, Consulting, Digital, Cloud & DevOps, Data, and Software Engineering, servicing an array of noteworthy financial services and technology firms. Through research and development initiatives in our FinLabs we develop solutions for modernization, from Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain to Data Science models, Digital Underwriting, mobile-first applications and more. Over the last 20+ years, our company has been honored with multiple employer awards, recognizing our commitment to our talented teams. With top clients to boast about, Synechron has a global workforce of 15,000+, and has 48 offices in 19 countries within key global markets.

Read More

Payments

Plooto Launches Enhanced All-In-One Payment Automation Solution for Scaling Businesses

Plooto | January 16, 2024

Plooto, a leading payment automation solution for small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs), has launched a payment orchestration offering that is custom-designed to support the complex workflows and security requirements of rapidly scaling businesses. As the size and operational complexity of businesses increase, the risk of fraud and human error grows. This leads businesses to implement more rigorous security and control policies to keep the management of cash flow secure and reliable, placing additional burdens on finance teams including time, effort, and resources spent upgrading or building in-house solutions. Similar challenges extend to accounting and bookkeeping firms, as their robust compliance processes and corresponding reputation are critical drivers of growth. Firms' ability to retain and expand client accounts hinges not only on strong relationships but also on their adherence to rigorous compliance standards, especially when it comes to financial data protection. With this launch, Plooto brings to market the first solution in Canada to address these unique cash management challenges faced by midsize enterprises. This offering is priced at a competitive rate as organizations often cite cost as a barrier to adoption of cash management solutions. As volume and complexity of operations increase, businesses can trust Plooto to scale their needs seamlessly without straining their resources. Coupling end-to-end payment automation with stringent security controls and seamless connection to enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, Plooto is now capable of helping even more businesses scale efficiently within their ecosystem. Building upon Plooto’s core offering of simplified, all-in-one payables and receivables automation, new capabilities include Dual Controls: Limits human error and protects against fraud through comprehensive approvals on changes to sensitive financial information Single Sign-On: Enterprise-level safeguards that enable security personnel to manage both user access to sensitive data and removal from a centralized hub as teams scale Integration with Oracle Netsuite: Seamless two-way sync automates reconciliation protecting against costly human error, reducing billable hours, and helping finance teams save time "Our new offering enables finance teams to easily scale their workflows and gain the visibility they crucially need into their cash flow,” says Hamed Abbasi, Co-Founder and CEO of Plooto. “I’m thrilled that Plooto is expanding how we support growing SMBs, and that we are the first company to fill this critical gap for Canadian businesses.” Having recently been awarded with Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ and Technology Fast 50™ designations for a staggering 3-year 433% growth rate, Plooto continues to provide industry-leading support for SMBs with a platform that enhances cash management through its all-in-one payment automation. Plooto has also recently expanded its leadership team, bringing extensive experience from major financial services companies such as Varo Bank, Xero, and PayPal. About Plooto Plooto partners with growing small-to-midsize businesses to give them complete control over their cash management. The all-in-one payment automation platform securely automates all payable and receivable workflows, offers extensive payment capabilities, and seamless integration with accounting software to automatically reconcile invoices. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Toronto, Plooto serves over 10,000 North American businesses, and integrates with top accounting software platforms Quickbooks, Xero, and NetSuite. Simplifying complex processes at scale, Plooto is the financial engine businesses rely on to achieve their growth potential.

Read More

Core Banking

Webull partners with Dow Jones to drive greater financial literacy and empower retail investing decisions

Webull Corporation | January 30, 2024

Webull, a leading online broker for global investors, has launched an initiative to drive financial literacy, announcing its partnership with Dow Jones, a global news and business information services provider and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The agreement aims to drive greater levels of financial literacy among retail investors by empowering Webull customers with curated award-winning content from The Wall Street Journal, including news, analysis, and essential insights on managing personal finances. The collaboration provides access to the publication's trusted and reliable journalism to help Webull users make better educated and informed decisions around their financial goals. Webull users will receive a curated round-up of WSJ articles on its news feed within the app. New and renewing Webull customers will also receive a WSJ subscription. "Webull was founded on the principle of democratizing investing and making it more accessible and inclusive - especially for first time investors. In this regard, we've already seen success, with a robust number of our active members being first-time investors," said Anthony Denier, Webull Group President. "Through this partnership with Dow Jones, we want to put the power of the world's leading financial publication straight into the hands of our customers with content that helps investors make better financial decisions with greater confidence." "Financial literacy, powered by trusted and credible journalism, leads to better decisions," said David Martin, Chief Revenue Officer for Business Intelligence at Dow Jones. "We are delighted to work with Webull and look forward to putting the Journal's high-quality and award-winning business news, information and analysis at the fingertips of millions of Webull users on its platform to help elevate their decision making process." Financial literacy has been identified as a key barrier to entry to investing for many people, with research from the World Economic Forum revealing that 40% of non-investors chose not to invest because they do not know how or find it too confusing. In addition, approximately 70% said they would be more likely to invest, or invest more, with expanded financial education. With the trend of retail investors skewing younger, the initiative aims to address knowledge gaps by providing access to actionable and outcome-oriented information to help educate and shape the way new and existing users navigate fast-changing markets in an informed and responsible manner. About Webull Webull is a leading digital investment platform built on next generation global infrastructure. The Webull Group is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida and backed by private equity investors located in the United States, Europe and Asia. Webull serves tens of millions of users from over 180 countries, providing retail investors with 24/7 access to global financial markets. Users can put investment strategies to work by trading global stocks, ETFs, options and fractional shares, through Webull's trading platform, which is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Canada. Webull also offers investment education services, with lessons covering a wide range of topics. About Dow Jones Dow Jones is a global provider of news and business information, delivering content to consumers and organizations around the world across multiple formats, including print, digital, mobile and live events. Dow Jones has produced unrivaled quality content for more than 130 years and today has one of the world's largest news-gathering operations globally. It is home to leading publications and products including the flagship Wall Street Journal, America's largest newspaper by paid circulation; Barron's, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Financial News, Investor's Business Daily, Factiva, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones Newswires, OPIS and Chemical Market Analytics.

Read More

Spotlight

Events

Resources

Events